A Flying Jatt Teaser

A Flying Jatt Poster

A Flying Jatt Review

"A Flying Jatt", is the story of the local superhero
of the same name. Apart from the name, there is nothing original about the film.
The character, chiselled on the lines of the DC Comics fictional character Superman,
is an Indianised version of the superhero which includes his traits and costume.

It is the story of a reluctant martial arts teacher, Aman Dhillon
(Tiger Shroff) who is forced to fight a prominent and powerful industrialist,
Mr. Malhotra and his goons, when they forcibly try to usurp a track of land
which his mother, Mrs. Dhillon (Amrita Singh) owns.

How Aman transforms from a meek person to the local crusader
-- "A Flying Jatt", forms the crux of the tale.

The film is director Remo D'Souza's pretentious plea to save
the planet. Pretentious because the film, in all sincerity, is treated with
an artificiality which includes his direct appeal -- "Everything has an
alternative, except Mother Earth."

The plot is layered and complex, but not without flaws. It
ropes in all the tried and tested formulas of film marketing; Deus ex-machina
as a plot device, a superhero who tugs on patriotic themes and religious affinity,
bonding with the mother, romance, fight between good and evil and moreover,
it tackles the serious issue of environmental pollution.

Apart from this, the film is replete with tell-and-show expositions,
half-baked characters, plot holes galore and interplanetary fight sequences.

Tiger Shroff in the titular role is sincere and charming. With
a stubble and turban he is striking and he lights up the screen with his presence.
His character is designed like a satire and he excels in its caricature, but
the poorly scripted drama does not back him enough.

Jacqueline Fernandez in a relatively small role is competent
as Aman's love interest, the giggly headed Kriti.

She looks radiant, performs ably and matches Tiger in histrionics.
But she fails to be consistent in the accent. Her dialogue delivery fluctuates
from an anglicised accent to a local one.

The hulk Nathan Jones plays the stereotypical henchman with
aplomb and elevates the character to the rank of an antagonist. Kay Kay Menon
as the pivotal bad man essays his role in a hackneyed manner.

The two characters who make their presence felt are Amrita
Singh as the drunk Mrs. Dhillon and the character who plays Rohit -- Aman's
friend, accomplice and brother-figure.

Technically, the film boasts of ace production values, but
the spirit is diluted with poor craftsmanship.

The effects are not at par with international standards and
though the computer generated images mesh seamlessly into the live action, the
finesse is missing.

The songs are well choreographed and well picturised except
for the "Beat pe booty". This one seems forced and poorly mounted
in a studio environment.

Overall, the director seems to have lost the plot after the
second act, as the narrative meanders making the entire comic affair agonising.

It isn't a bird. It isn't a plane. And it's definitely not
Superman. Why must the desi superhero behave like a country cousin of his Hollywood
counterpart?

Remo d'Souza, who makes indigenous films based on western concepts
such as the dance-competition genre which he made into "ABCD" (it
was actually 'Ka Kha Ga Gha'), here turns the superhero genre on its head. And
he has a ball coiling twisting twirling Tiger Shroff - we all know how mouldable
he is - in a ball of helpless heroism.

Tiger is the light of this light-hearted take on super-heroism.
The young dancer-fighter can take a joke on himself even if it shows him to
be less than heroic. There is a whole chunk of satirical heroism in the narrative
where Aman/Flying Jatt goes out into the night to save the world and comes home
red-faced and humiliated to his bullying mom (Amrita Singh, doing a Kirron Kher)
and a giggling brother (Gaurav Pandey, excellent).

"Dead Pool" thereby drowns in its own laughter. And
no one is seriously hurt by K.K. Menon's over-the-top villainy, even when Tiger's
adversary is an imposing monster of a man - Raka (Nathan Jones) imported from
the West but beaten to a pulp before the show is over.

What works wonderfully in the narrative's favour is the mood
of defiant desiness. No one here is trying to compete with the Captain Americas
of the world, not even the special effects guys who give us the kind of superhero
breeze-walk that we saw in "Shaktimaan" on Doordarshan. Then there
is a magical tree with unfathomable miraculous powers where a rain-drenched
fight (ably choreographed by Mohammed Amin Khatib) between Aman and Raka leaves
the former with superhero powers and a Sikh religious emblem imprinted on his
back.

Tiger is a laugh riot in conveying the spellbound bewilderment
of an ordinary guy who can suddenly fly. The narrative keeps pace with its sincerely
committed hero most of the way, slowing down reverentially for an animation
crash-course on Sikh history, as to why and how the adage of Sardarjis losing
their equilibrium at the stroke of 12 came about.

It's an interesting take on how the Sardarji jokes wound themselves
into a joke out of a poignant moment in Sikh history. In a way, D'Souza attempts
the same subversion of the superhero in "A Flying Jatt". He plays
around with the tenets of the genre without tampering with the basic format.

The narrative is never allowed to topple over the edge even
when it reaches into recesses of thematic exploration far beyond the permissible
boundaries of the superhero film. There is even a homage to Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's "Swachch Bharat" campaign with hordes of turbaned junior artistes
sweeping roads and planting trees.

The end result is funny and earnest. While Tiger, Gaurav and
Amrita look like one happy family, Jacqueline Fernandez is the odd one out.
I only remember her grinning vacuously and running towards the superhero with
two bottle-gourds in her hand.